waterloo

Here's the deal folks: today I mowed a path through my garden with the lawnmower. Are you disappointed? Are you concerned? 

Remember how confident I was in May?

It's August, I tried to tell myself. You always feel like raising the white flag in your garden every August, so don't blow a gasket. 

Well, I didn't exactly blow a gasket. It's just that I'm the sort of person that likes things tidy and MY GARDEN IS FULL OF WEEDS. Now, last year my garden wasn't full of weeds, because I was here all summer to take care of it. This year I was gone at school for June and July so my family had to take care of it. 

They took really good care of it. June and July were dry months, so the priority was watering, but it's August now and the nasty weeds have taken fierce root in my garden and the only thing I could think to do (save just faint in the shoulder high bramble of stinging nettle, stink weed and CREEPING CHARLIE) was pull out the lawnmower, baby!

I mowed over the lettuce patch that had turned bitter, bolted, and was chocked with weeds AND the vacant shallot bed (the shallots are curing nicely in a dry place), but I was careful to avoid my beautiful leeks and zinnias. 

Some things are still worth fighting for. 

Right now I'm thinking about my purple potatoes from Peru and my broccoli plants. I know I planted them somewhere near the end of the garden. Then there's the zucchini . . . it's gone AWOL, but I know it's somewhere amidst the tall grasses. 

These plants will need a more patient hand - not a lawnmower - and I'm prepared to give them that . . . tomorrow. 

Shesh, I'm having a beer. I think I deserve it. 

Here's something to celebrate : my finished Chevalier mittens. I thought I was going to keep them for myself, but now it turns out they're going to be a gift to a future cousin-in-law. 

Isn't the color lovely? 

Hopefully I can knit myself a pair before the cold wind blows. I will need something to cover my gnarled and blistered hands : the evidence of my garden in August.